The latest scandal
rocking the Bush administration has its provenance in the issue of alleged
"voter fraud." The original intention to fire 93 US attorneys
and the eventual dismissal of seven of them was largely based on questions
of political loyalty. The apparent litmus test for said loyalty was the
willingness or lack thereof for prosecuting cases of so-called "voter
fraud." Those who showed promise for prosecuting so-called "voter
fraud" were considered "loyal" to the Bush Republican regime,
and those who didn't, were not.

"Since the
2000 election ended in dispute in Florida," MSNBC reports,
"Republicans at the national and local levels have repeatedly raised
concerns about possible voter fraud, alleging that convicted felons and
other ineligible voters have been permitted to cast ballots to the benefit
of Democrats." Imagine that, the Republicans complaining about FRAUD
in connection with VOTING! Now isn't that the most ironic idea you can
imagine? Perhaps not as ironic as it might be, if one considers the administration's
subtle shift in terminology.

One should note
the White House and Justice emphasis on voter fraud, as opposed
to election fraud. The distinction is not a minor one. Voter
fraud places the blame for election scandals on so-called felonious and
'dead' voters whose votes are reputedly cast for Democrats. These felons
and dead-men-voting are the old boogie men of Republican rhetoric regarding
elections.

Election
fraud, on the other hand, might include organizational, party-level, state-collusive
manipulation and/or purging of voter rolls, the failure to count or the
miscounting of ballots, the destruction of ballots, the failure to recount
ballots when legally required to do so by state laws, the illegal use
of election facilities for party purposes, the state-sanctioned targeting
of precincts for faulty or inadequate amounts of equipment, and of course,
the manipulation of electronic voting machine tabulations.

In short, election
fraud includes the very serious and major problems that did account
for the election thefts of 2000
as well as 2004.
While voter fraud is a notorious boogie man-the alleged dead-man-voting
that no one can locate on the ground.

What then could
be the reason for the White House's and Justice's emphasis on voter
fraud? Might it have been means by which to distract attention away from
the systemic and well-documented election scandals of the past six years?
Might it have been a form of retribution against Democrats for the well-founded
accusations, lingering anger and outrage, and possible investigations
regarding the last two presidential "elections" that resulted
in utterly discredited results-the "elections" of GW Bush? Might
the attempt to replace US Attorneys have been an attempt to refocus any
possible future investigations toward VOTER as opposed to the well-known
and utterly outrageous practices of ELECTION fraud undertaken by Republican
party operatives during the Rove era?

These motives,
probably combined, account for the move to dismiss these and more US attorneys,
and also explain the intimate involvement of Rove (and probably Bush)
in the firings.

Remember, Bush
and his ilk are going down soon, but they want to leave a judicial legacy
that will survive them for decades, if not half-centuries. This legacy
will, they hope, include prosecutors who will turn a blind eye to the
kind of systemic election fraud that Republicans routinely undertake,
while shifting attention to the minor issue of dead-men-voting. Voter
fraud is a red herring and the firing of the US attorneys is apiece with
the vast rightwing conspiratorial
practice of ELECTION FRAUD.